Christopher Porco
Encyclopedia
Christopher Porco is a convicted murderer; he was convicted of killing his father and attempting to murder his mother on November 15, 2004. He was tried in Goshen
, Orange County, New York
, on charges of second degree murder in the murder of his father, Peter Porco, and second degree attempted murder in the severe wounding and disfigurement of his mother, Joan Porco, in Delmar, New York
. The trial lasted 21 days and was one of the most thoroughly covered Capital District
news events in recent history.
The trial was moved to Orange County after a New York State appeals court ruled that a change of venue
was necessary to ensure Porco received a fair trial because of the intense media pre-trial coverage in the Albany area. Orange County criminal court justice Judge Jeffrey G. Berry, who presided over the trial, allowed still cameras (no sound or video) in the court during the proceedings, a rarity in New York State, which gives judges great discretion over the electronic recording of cases. The Judge did allow video taping of the summations of both defense and prosecution lawyers. The announcement of that verdict was also video taped.
The case against Porco received extensive coverage in local newspapers including the Times Union and The Spotlight as well as in local television outlets. The case was also the subject of a one-hour documentary on 48 Hours Mystery entitled "Memory of Murder," broadcast by CBS
on November 4, 2006, as well as an episode of the TruTV series Forensic Files
that originally aired on July 17, 2009. This attention may be due to the grisly nature of the murder as well as email
s between Porco and his parents in the months leading up to the attack, which have been made public. The emails detail tension caused by Porco's academic problems and careless spending. Perhaps most interesting to those following the case is the fact that a badly scarred Joan Porco maintained her son's innocence throughout the trial and accompanied him to many of his criminal proceedings.
A fireman's ax belonging to the Porcos and used in the attack was found in the couple's bedroom.
As Joan was rushed into emergency surgery, Bethlehem
Police quickly focused their investigation on the younger of the couple's two sons, Christopher, then a student at the University of Rochester
, 230 miles westward. Less than two hours after authorities arrived at the scene of the attack, an all-points bulletin for Christopher was issued.
Christopher Porco was at the University of Rochester when his parents were discovered. He was accidentally notified of the attack by Simone Sebastian, a reporter at the Times Union who attempted to contact Porco's roommate with questions about the family.
That evening, Porco returned to Delmar and was questioned by Bethlehem Police detectives about the attack.
brothers and friends and to determine his whereabouts during the early morning hours of November 15.
In late November, 2004 outgoing Albany County
District Attorney
Paul Clyne
convened a grand jury
to hear testimony implicating Christopher Porco in the murder. Some of those who were reported to have testified in the closed-session hearing included Porco's friends from college, a University of Rochester
campus safety officer, as well as a former girlfriend. The Grand jury would field more testimony, and stretch months before finally handing up an indictment against Christopher in November 2005, one year after the attacks.
The murder gained greater attention in the Capital District as Joan Porco, emerging from a medically-induced coma, maintained that Christopher had nothing to do with her husband's murder. During videotaped testimony submitted to the grand jury in December 2005 Joan testified about her family but did not identify her son as an attacker. Nine months later, she wrote a letter for publication in the Times Union about Christopher: "I implore the Bethlehem police and the District Attorney's Office to leave my son alone, and to search for Peter's real killer or killers, so that he can rest in peace and my sons and I can live in safety."
.
Following the Fall 2003 semester, University of Rochester officials forced Christopher Porco to withdraw from the school due to poor grades. When Porco was readmitted to the university the following year, he took out a loan for more than $30,000 to pay for his expenses, forging Peter's name as a cosignatory. Unbeknownst to his parents, Christopher was attempting to pay for his Fall 2004 tuition with a portion of the $31,000 loan he had received. Earlier in the fall, he had told his parents he had been readmitted to the University of Rochester after the school determined a professor had misplaced his final exam from the previous fall semester. Peter and Joan Porco were under the impression that their son's tuition would be covered by the college.
Less than two weeks before his murder, Peter confronted his son about his dishonesty in an email and reprimanded him: "Did you forge my signature as a co-signer?...What the hell are you doing? You should have called me to discuss it...I'm calling Citibank this morning to find out what you have done and am going to tell them I'm not to be on it as a co-signer."
The following day, Peter Porco was notified that Christopher had also obtained a line of credit from Citibank
to finance the Jeep Wrangler. His son had also used Peter's name as a cosignatory to secure the auto loan. Peter once again wrote to his son, who had not answered phone calls from him or Joan in weeks. In an email, Peter warned Christopher that he would not tolerate any more dishonesty: "I want you to know that if you abuse my credit again, I will be forced to file forgery affidavits in order to disclaim liability and that applies to the Citibank college loan if you attempt to reactivate it or use my credit to obtain any other loan,." In the same email, Peter Porco welcomed his son to return to the family's Delmar home to resolve the matter, concluding his message by saying, "We may be disappointed with you, but your mother and I still love you and care about your future."
lounge at the University of Rochester to sleep and awoke the following morning.
Bethlehem Police detectives and current Albany County
District Attorney
David Soares
were steadfast that Porco instead drove more than three hours eastward to Albany in the early morning hours of November 15 to murder his parents.
Marshall Gokey, a neighbor at 53 Brockley Drive, told investigators shortly after the murder that on November 15 before 4 a.m., he spotted a yellow Jeep Wrangler in the Porcos' driveway.
Investigators also contacted two New York State Thruway
toll booth collectors who reported that they recalled seeing Wranglers matching the description passing through their stations. John Fallon, a toll
collector at Exit 46 outside of Rochester, New York
recounted seeing a yellow Wrangler with large tires at approximately 10:45 p.m. on November 14. Karen Russell, who collected tolls at Exit 24 in Albany told investigators that she spotted a yellow Wrangler shortly before 2 a.m. on November 15 because of its "excessive speed" upon approaching the toll plaza.
Four security cameras stationed at the University of Rochester recorded footage of a yellow Jeep Wrangler fitting the description of Porco's vehicle leaving the campus at 10:30 p.m. on November 14 and returning at 8:30 a.m. on November 15. Prosecutors maintain that the attack on Peter and Joan Porco occurred in the early morning hours.
who lied to obtain a car as well as tuition payments. Michelle McKay, a law clerk who worked with Peter Porco, said he had described his youngest son as a sociopath during a conversation with her. Several Albany-area psychologists and mental health professors have stated for the Times Union that Porco's behavior was consistent with that of a sociopath. In particular, they focused on a consistent pattern of lies Porco told to convince acquaintances that he was from a wealthy and influential family.
to retrieve a laptop
computer Christopher Porco had stolen from his parents on July 21, 2003 during a break-in that occurred while he was home from college. Porco had sold the laptop on eBay
. Eight months earlier on November 28, 2002, Police contend Christopher also staged a burglary at his parent's home in which he took a Macintosh
laptop computer and a Dell
laptop computer. A camera reported missing from the burglary was recovered from the couple's front yard. One month before the attack, both Christopher and Jonathan Porco had their eBay accounts frozen because they shared the same Delmar address. Christopher had not sent several customers the items they had paid for from his account. During their investigation it was revealed to prosecutors that Christopher posed as a Porco brother, sending emails to the jilted customers explaining that his brother had died and was unable to deliver on the items.
in March 2004, Christopher received an email from Joan Porco's account admonishing him for failing classes at Hudson Valley Community College
in Troy, NY. In the message, Joan and Peter complained to their son, "You just left and (we) can't believe (our) eyes as I look at your interim grade report. You know what they say, 'Three strikes and you're out.' Explain yourself." The email's subject header was entitled "Failing Grades-You did it again!" Several days later, Christopher replied in a message to his father. Blaming the community college's office of registrar
, he wrote, "[B]ut obviously they are incorrect...My lowest grade that I got on anything was a B on a physics test...Don't jump to conclusions, I'm fine." Porco earned readmission to the University of Rochester with a forged transcript from HVCC. Judge Berry has refused to allow prosecutors to use the forged transcripts as evidence in their criminal case against Christopher Porco.
Converging factors in the Porco case included the following: fraud against the family, Christopher being confronted about his fraud by his father, and Christopher’s sociopathic traits. A forensic review of the Porco case and other parricide cases that have occurred when fraud detection was a primary factor was published in the forensic literature. The importance of homicide detectives considering fraud detection as a motive during murder investigations and planning an interview strategy of the murder suspect based on the character of the murder suspect has been published in the forensic literature.
In statements to the press and criminal proceedings, Kindlon has suggested that the Bethlehem Police Department had made Christopher Porco's guilt a foregone conclusion. During his opening remarks to jurors on June 27, 2006 Kindlon described the Bethlehem Police as a department "that chases skateboarders away from the 7-11...This is not the FBI."
Kindlon's co-counsel and wife Laurie Shanks has also maintained that police overlooked the possibility that Peter Porco's death was the result of retaliation against his uncle Frank Porco, a captain in the Bonanno crime family
in New York City. Frank Porco had served two years in prison for loansharking and extortion
, although Shanks incorrectly told jurors that he had been indicted for his involvement in a murder. Shanks noted that Frank Porco's nickname with the mob was "The Fireman" which could have had something to do with the type of murder weapon found, a fire ax. He had served in the New York City Fire Department
.
In the morning of August 10, 2006, the jury began deliberations. By 5:00 EST, Christopher Porco was found guilty of second degree murder and attempted murder.
On December 12, 2006 Judge Jeffrey Berry sentenced Christopher to 25 years to life on each count totaling a minimum of 50 years in prison. Judge Berry was quoted as saying, "I fear very much what happened in the early morning hours of November 15 is something that could happen again."
Porco was initially sent to Downstate Correctional Facility. On January 23, 2007 he was moved to Clinton Correctional Facility
in Dannemora, NY
to serve his prison term.
Goshen (village), New York
Goshen is a village in and the county seat of Orange County, New York, United States. The population was 5,676 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area as well as the larger New York–Newark–Bridgeport,...
, Orange County, New York
Orange County, New York
Orange County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. It is part of the Poughkeepsie–Newburgh–Middletown, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area and is located at the northern reaches of the New York metropolitan area. The county sits in the state's scenic Mid-Hudson Region of the Hudson Valley...
, on charges of second degree murder in the murder of his father, Peter Porco, and second degree attempted murder in the severe wounding and disfigurement of his mother, Joan Porco, in Delmar, New York
Delmar, New York
Delmar is a hamlet in the town of Bethlehem, Albany County, New York. A census-designated place has been established since 1980 by the US Bureau of Census for tabulating the population of what the census has defined as the boundaries of the urbanized area in and around Delmar. The population was...
. The trial lasted 21 days and was one of the most thoroughly covered Capital District
Capital District
New York's Capital District, also known as the Capital Region, is a region in upstate New York that generally refers to the four counties surrounding Albany, the capital of the state: Albany County, Schenectady County, Rensselaer County, and Saratoga County...
news events in recent history.
The trial was moved to Orange County after a New York State appeals court ruled that a change of venue
Change of venue
A change of venue is the legal term for moving a trial to a new location. In high-profile matters, a change of venue may occur to move a jury trial away from a location where a fair and impartial jury may not be possible due to widespread publicity about a crime and/or its defendant to another...
was necessary to ensure Porco received a fair trial because of the intense media pre-trial coverage in the Albany area. Orange County criminal court justice Judge Jeffrey G. Berry, who presided over the trial, allowed still cameras (no sound or video) in the court during the proceedings, a rarity in New York State, which gives judges great discretion over the electronic recording of cases. The Judge did allow video taping of the summations of both defense and prosecution lawyers. The announcement of that verdict was also video taped.
The case against Porco received extensive coverage in local newspapers including the Times Union and The Spotlight as well as in local television outlets. The case was also the subject of a one-hour documentary on 48 Hours Mystery entitled "Memory of Murder," broadcast by CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
on November 4, 2006, as well as an episode of the TruTV series Forensic Files
Forensic Files
Forensic Files is an American documentary-style series which reveals how forensic science is used to solve violent crimes, mysterious accidents, and even outbreaks of illness. The show is broadcast on truTV, narrated by Peter Thomas, and produced by Medstar Television, in association with truTV...
that originally aired on July 17, 2009. This attention may be due to the grisly nature of the murder as well as email
Email
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
s between Porco and his parents in the months leading up to the attack, which have been made public. The emails detail tension caused by Porco's academic problems and careless spending. Perhaps most interesting to those following the case is the fact that a badly scarred Joan Porco maintained her son's innocence throughout the trial and accompanied him to many of his criminal proceedings.
Background
On Monday November 15, 2004, a New York State courts officer was ordered to the home of Peter and Joan Porco. Peter, a State Appellate Division court clerk, had not reported to his Albany office for work that morning. Upon entering the two-story home at 36 Brockley Drive in Delmar, the officer discovered Peter's lifeless, blood-soaked body near the front door. An Albany County medical examiner would determine that Peter, 52, had sustained massive head injuries causing his death. Joan Porco was soon discovered by police officers. She was lying in the couple's blood-drenched bed and had suffered severe head and facial trauma. Joan would lose her left eye and a portion of her skull.A fireman's ax belonging to the Porcos and used in the attack was found in the couple's bedroom.
As Joan was rushed into emergency surgery, Bethlehem
Bethlehem, New York
Bethlehem is a town in Albany County, New York, USA. The population was 33,656 at the 2010 census. The town is south of Albany. Bethlehem includes the following hamlets: Delmar, Elsmere, Slingerlands, Glenmont, Selkirk, South and North Bethlehem. U.S. Route 9W passes through the town...
Police quickly focused their investigation on the younger of the couple's two sons, Christopher, then a student at the University of Rochester
University of Rochester
The University of Rochester is a private, nonsectarian, research university in Rochester, New York, United States. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees. The university has six schools and various interdisciplinary programs.The...
, 230 miles westward. Less than two hours after authorities arrived at the scene of the attack, an all-points bulletin for Christopher was issued.
Christopher Porco was at the University of Rochester when his parents were discovered. He was accidentally notified of the attack by Simone Sebastian, a reporter at the Times Union who attempted to contact Porco's roommate with questions about the family.
That evening, Porco returned to Delmar and was questioned by Bethlehem Police detectives about the attack.
Prosecution case
In the months following the attack Porco's attorney Terence Kindlon criticized investigators, saying they were focusing narrowly on Christopher Porco as a suspect. Shortly after the attack, Bethlehem Police detectives were dispatched to the university to inverview Porco's fraternityFraternities and sororities
Fraternities and sororities are fraternal social organizations for undergraduate students. In Latin, the term refers mainly to such organizations at colleges and universities in the United States, although it is also applied to analogous European groups also known as corporations...
brothers and friends and to determine his whereabouts during the early morning hours of November 15.
In late November, 2004 outgoing Albany County
Albany County, New York
Albany County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York, and is part of the Albany-Schenectady-Troy Metropolitan Statistical Area. The name is from the title of the Duke of York and Albany, who became James II of England . As of the 2010 census, the population was 304,204...
District Attorney
District attorney
In many jurisdictions in the United States, a District Attorney is an elected or appointed government official who represents the government in the prosecution of criminal offenses. The district attorney is the highest officeholder in the jurisdiction's legal department and supervises a staff of...
Paul Clyne
Paul Clyne
Paul Clyne was the District Attorney of Albany County, New York from January 2001 through December 2004. A graduate of Albany Law School, he spent about 14 years as an assistant district attorney, before he was tapped by local politicians to replace the retiring District Attorney, Sol Greenberg...
convened a grand jury
Grand jury
A grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...
to hear testimony implicating Christopher Porco in the murder. Some of those who were reported to have testified in the closed-session hearing included Porco's friends from college, a University of Rochester
University of Rochester
The University of Rochester is a private, nonsectarian, research university in Rochester, New York, United States. The university grants undergraduate and graduate degrees, including doctoral and professional degrees. The university has six schools and various interdisciplinary programs.The...
campus safety officer, as well as a former girlfriend. The Grand jury would field more testimony, and stretch months before finally handing up an indictment against Christopher in November 2005, one year after the attacks.
Identification
Christopher Bowdish, a Bethlehem Police detective, stated that as medical personnel attended to Joan Porco at her home, he took a moment to ask her if she could identify her attacker. Bowdish said that when he asked Joan if a family member had done it, Porco used her head to indicate "yes". Bowdish has maintained that when he asked her if it had been her older son John, a Naval officer stationed in South Carolina during the attack, she shook her head indicating it was not but nodded her head up and down indicating "yes" when he asked her if Christopher were responsible. Joan Porco's alleged identification of her son Christopher may explain why Bethlehem Police pursued her son soon after the incident, rather than conducting a broader investigation of potential suspects. She also answered in similar ways to other separate questions.The murder gained greater attention in the Capital District as Joan Porco, emerging from a medically-induced coma, maintained that Christopher had nothing to do with her husband's murder. During videotaped testimony submitted to the grand jury in December 2005 Joan testified about her family but did not identify her son as an attacker. Nine months later, she wrote a letter for publication in the Times Union about Christopher: "I implore the Bethlehem police and the District Attorney's Office to leave my son alone, and to search for Peter's real killer or killers, so that he can rest in peace and my sons and I can live in safety."
Financial problems
It was quickly revealed to the news media that there had been tension between Christopher Porco and his parents involving money prior to the attack. A series of emails disseminated through the press show the growing rift over loans that Christopher took out to pay for his tuition at the University of Rochester as well as to finance a new yellow Jeep WranglerJeep Wrangler
The Jeep Wrangler is a subcompact four-wheel drive sport utility vehicle and an off-road vehicle manufactured by American automaker Chrysler, under its Jeep marque – and now in its fourth generation. It is a successor to the famous World War II 'Jeep' vehicle by way of the Willys civilian...
.
Following the Fall 2003 semester, University of Rochester officials forced Christopher Porco to withdraw from the school due to poor grades. When Porco was readmitted to the university the following year, he took out a loan for more than $30,000 to pay for his expenses, forging Peter's name as a cosignatory. Unbeknownst to his parents, Christopher was attempting to pay for his Fall 2004 tuition with a portion of the $31,000 loan he had received. Earlier in the fall, he had told his parents he had been readmitted to the University of Rochester after the school determined a professor had misplaced his final exam from the previous fall semester. Peter and Joan Porco were under the impression that their son's tuition would be covered by the college.
Less than two weeks before his murder, Peter confronted his son about his dishonesty in an email and reprimanded him: "Did you forge my signature as a co-signer?...What the hell are you doing? You should have called me to discuss it...I'm calling Citibank this morning to find out what you have done and am going to tell them I'm not to be on it as a co-signer."
The following day, Peter Porco was notified that Christopher had also obtained a line of credit from Citibank
Citibank
Citibank, a major international bank, is the consumer banking arm of financial services giant Citigroup. Citibank was founded in 1812 as the City Bank of New York, later First National City Bank of New York...
to finance the Jeep Wrangler. His son had also used Peter's name as a cosignatory to secure the auto loan. Peter once again wrote to his son, who had not answered phone calls from him or Joan in weeks. In an email, Peter warned Christopher that he would not tolerate any more dishonesty: "I want you to know that if you abuse my credit again, I will be forced to file forgery affidavits in order to disclaim liability and that applies to the Citibank college loan if you attempt to reactivate it or use my credit to obtain any other loan,." In the same email, Peter Porco welcomed his son to return to the family's Delmar home to resolve the matter, concluding his message by saying, "We may be disappointed with you, but your mother and I still love you and care about your future."
Porco's movements
Christopher Porco told investigators that on the night of November 14, 2004, he retired to a dormitoryDormitory
A dormitory, often shortened to dorm, in the United States is a residence hall consisting of sleeping quarters or entire buildings primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people, often boarding school, college or university students...
lounge at the University of Rochester to sleep and awoke the following morning.
Bethlehem Police detectives and current Albany County
Albany County, New York
Albany County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York, and is part of the Albany-Schenectady-Troy Metropolitan Statistical Area. The name is from the title of the Duke of York and Albany, who became James II of England . As of the 2010 census, the population was 304,204...
District Attorney
District attorney
In many jurisdictions in the United States, a District Attorney is an elected or appointed government official who represents the government in the prosecution of criminal offenses. The district attorney is the highest officeholder in the jurisdiction's legal department and supervises a staff of...
David Soares
David Soares
P. David Soares is the current Albany County District Attorney. He is a Democrat.- Personal life :Soares was the youngest of the six children of Lucas and Lidia Soares. When he was six years old his family moved to Pawtucket, Rhode Island. He received a Bachelor's Degree in communications from...
were steadfast that Porco instead drove more than three hours eastward to Albany in the early morning hours of November 15 to murder his parents.
Marshall Gokey, a neighbor at 53 Brockley Drive, told investigators shortly after the murder that on November 15 before 4 a.m., he spotted a yellow Jeep Wrangler in the Porcos' driveway.
Investigators also contacted two New York State Thruway
New York State Thruway
The New York State Thruway is a system of limited-access highways located within the state of New York in the United States. The system, known officially as the Governor Thomas E. Dewey Thruway for former New York Governor Thomas E. Dewey, is operated by the New York State Thruway Authority and...
toll booth collectors who reported that they recalled seeing Wranglers matching the description passing through their stations. John Fallon, a toll
Toll road
A toll road is a privately or publicly built road for which a driver pays a toll for use. Structures for which tolls are charged include toll bridges and toll tunnels. Non-toll roads are financed using other sources of revenue, most typically fuel tax or general tax funds...
collector at Exit 46 outside of Rochester, New York
Rochester, New York
Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...
recounted seeing a yellow Wrangler with large tires at approximately 10:45 p.m. on November 14. Karen Russell, who collected tolls at Exit 24 in Albany told investigators that she spotted a yellow Wrangler shortly before 2 a.m. on November 15 because of its "excessive speed" upon approaching the toll plaza.
Four security cameras stationed at the University of Rochester recorded footage of a yellow Jeep Wrangler fitting the description of Porco's vehicle leaving the campus at 10:30 p.m. on November 14 and returning at 8:30 a.m. on November 15. Prosecutors maintain that the attack on Peter and Joan Porco occurred in the early morning hours.
Sociopath
Much attention has been focused on the personality of Christopher Porco. Police contended that he is a sociopathPsychopathy
Psychopathy is a mental disorder characterized primarily by a lack of empathy and remorse, shallow emotions, egocentricity, and deceptiveness. Psychopaths are highly prone to antisocial behavior and abusive treatment of others, and are very disproportionately responsible for violent crime...
who lied to obtain a car as well as tuition payments. Michelle McKay, a law clerk who worked with Peter Porco, said he had described his youngest son as a sociopath during a conversation with her. Several Albany-area psychologists and mental health professors have stated for the Times Union that Porco's behavior was consistent with that of a sociopath. In particular, they focused on a consistent pattern of lies Porco told to convince acquaintances that he was from a wealthy and influential family.
Burglaries
During the course of their investigation, authorities determined that he had a history of anti-social behavior that included burglarizing his parents' Delmar home. In 2005, Bethlehem Police detectives travelled to San Diego, CaliforniaSan Diego, California
San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...
to retrieve a laptop
Laptop
A laptop, also called a notebook, is a personal computer for mobile use. A laptop integrates most of the typical components of a desktop computer, including a display, a keyboard, a pointing device and speakers into a single unit...
computer Christopher Porco had stolen from his parents on July 21, 2003 during a break-in that occurred while he was home from college. Porco had sold the laptop on eBay
EBay
eBay Inc. is an American internet consumer-to-consumer corporation that manages eBay.com, an online auction and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety of goods and services worldwide...
. Eight months earlier on November 28, 2002, Police contend Christopher also staged a burglary at his parent's home in which he took a Macintosh
Macintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
laptop computer and a Dell
Dell
Dell, Inc. is an American multinational information technology corporation based in 1 Dell Way, Round Rock, Texas, United States, that develops, sells and supports computers and related products and services. Bearing the name of its founder, Michael Dell, the company is one of the largest...
laptop computer. A camera reported missing from the burglary was recovered from the couple's front yard. One month before the attack, both Christopher and Jonathan Porco had their eBay accounts frozen because they shared the same Delmar address. Christopher had not sent several customers the items they had paid for from his account. During their investigation it was revealed to prosecutors that Christopher posed as a Porco brother, sending emails to the jilted customers explaining that his brother had died and was unable to deliver on the items.
Forgery
While away on a trip to EnglandEngland
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
in March 2004, Christopher received an email from Joan Porco's account admonishing him for failing classes at Hudson Valley Community College
Hudson Valley Community College
Hudson Valley Community College, a SUNY associated two-year college, is located in Troy in Rensselaer County, New York. Although about eighty percent of the students are from the local area, the remainder are from other parts of New York, other states and from some 30 countries around the...
in Troy, NY. In the message, Joan and Peter complained to their son, "You just left and (we) can't believe (our) eyes as I look at your interim grade report. You know what they say, 'Three strikes and you're out.' Explain yourself." The email's subject header was entitled "Failing Grades-You did it again!" Several days later, Christopher replied in a message to his father. Blaming the community college's office of registrar
Registrar (academic)
In education outside the United Kingdom, a registrar or registrary is an official in an academic institution who handles student records. Typically, a registrar processes registration requests, schedules classes and maintains class lists, enforces the rules for entering or leaving classes, and...
, he wrote, "[B]ut obviously they are incorrect...My lowest grade that I got on anything was a B on a physics test...Don't jump to conclusions, I'm fine." Porco earned readmission to the University of Rochester with a forged transcript from HVCC. Judge Berry has refused to allow prosecutors to use the forged transcripts as evidence in their criminal case against Christopher Porco.
Converging factors in the Porco case included the following: fraud against the family, Christopher being confronted about his fraud by his father, and Christopher’s sociopathic traits. A forensic review of the Porco case and other parricide cases that have occurred when fraud detection was a primary factor was published in the forensic literature. The importance of homicide detectives considering fraud detection as a motive during murder investigations and planning an interview strategy of the murder suspect based on the character of the murder suspect has been published in the forensic literature.
Defense case
Defense attorney Terence Kindlon emphasized that the Bethlehem Police Department had no physical evidence linking Christopher Porco to the attack on his parents. No fingerprints were recovered from the fire ax found at the scene of the crime.In statements to the press and criminal proceedings, Kindlon has suggested that the Bethlehem Police Department had made Christopher Porco's guilt a foregone conclusion. During his opening remarks to jurors on June 27, 2006 Kindlon described the Bethlehem Police as a department "that chases skateboarders away from the 7-11...This is not the FBI."
Kindlon's co-counsel and wife Laurie Shanks has also maintained that police overlooked the possibility that Peter Porco's death was the result of retaliation against his uncle Frank Porco, a captain in the Bonanno crime family
Bonanno crime family
The Bonanno crime family is one of the "Five Families" that dominates organized crime activities in New York City, United States, within the nationwide criminal phenomenon known as the Mafia ....
in New York City. Frank Porco had served two years in prison for loansharking and extortion
Extortion
Extortion is a criminal offence which occurs when a person unlawfully obtains either money, property or services from a person, entity, or institution, through coercion. Refraining from doing harm is sometimes euphemistically called protection. Extortion is commonly practiced by organized crime...
, although Shanks incorrectly told jurors that he had been indicted for his involvement in a murder. Shanks noted that Frank Porco's nickname with the mob was "The Fireman" which could have had something to do with the type of murder weapon found, a fire ax. He had served in the New York City Fire Department
New York City Fire Department
The New York City Fire Department or the Fire Department of the City of New York has the responsibility for protecting the citizens and property of New York City's five boroughs from fires and fire hazards, providing emergency medical services, technical rescue as well as providing first response...
.
Trial and conviction
On August 2, 2006, the prosecution completed its case against Porco, and the defense's case, which was much briefer, began.In the morning of August 10, 2006, the jury began deliberations. By 5:00 EST, Christopher Porco was found guilty of second degree murder and attempted murder.
On December 12, 2006 Judge Jeffrey Berry sentenced Christopher to 25 years to life on each count totaling a minimum of 50 years in prison. Judge Berry was quoted as saying, "I fear very much what happened in the early morning hours of November 15 is something that could happen again."
Porco was initially sent to Downstate Correctional Facility. On January 23, 2007 he was moved to Clinton Correctional Facility
Clinton Correctional Facility
Clinton Correctional Facility is a New York State Department of Correctional Services state prison for men located in the Village of Dannemora, New York. The prison itself is sometimes colloquially referred to as Dannemora, although its actual name is derived from its location in Clinton County,...
in Dannemora, NY
Dannemora (village), New York
Dannemora is a village located primarily in the Town of Dannemora in Clinton County, New York. The population was 3,936 at the 2010 census. The name is derived from Dannemora, Sweden, an iron-making town where early settlers came from ....
to serve his prison term.
In popular culture
- The CSI: Crime Scene InvestigationCSI: Crime Scene InvestigationCSI: Crime Scene Investigation is an American crime drama television series, which premiered on CBS on October 6, 2000. The show was created by Anthony E. Zuiker and produced by Jerry Bruckheimer...
episode Bloodsport (CSI episode), aired October 29, 2009, features an attack similar to the one Christopher Porco was convicted of. A college football coach is attacked in his bed during the night. Much like Peter Porco, the coach receives massive head injuries and blood loss from the attack, but still manages (as if by autopilot) to get up in the morning when his alarm goes off, going downstairs, pouring coffee and making breakfast before going outside to get the paper, where he finally collapses from his injuries.
External links
- Christopher Porco Murder Trial special report at timesunion.com -- Includes transcripts, biographies, photographs, and trial-related video.
- "Memory of Murder"-- A 48 Hours Mystery
- Porco Trial Archive on CBS6Albany.com -- Archived Video from CBS 6's coverage of the Porco Trial
- Porco Trial stories, photos, videos and documents from Spotlight Newspapers coverage.
- Tru Tv Crime Library Article on the Porco case.